Thursday, July 5

The Origin of OMG

OMG
is among the first and most popular Internet slang. It stands for “Oh my God”
or “Oh my gosh.”

But
different from what most people would expect, OMG as an expression is actually much
older than the Internet itself!

The
first use of the expression “OMG” has been credited to John Arbuthnot Fisher.

In
1917, Fisher wrote a letter to Winston Churchill. Here’s part of his letter:

I hear that a new order of
Knighthood is on the tapis! -- OMG! (Oh! My! God!) – Shower it on the
Admiralty!

At
that time, Fisher was 70 years old and serving in the British navy as an admiral.

Portrait by Hubert von Herkomer

These
days, “OMG” as an expression is very popular - especially on SMS, chat, and
Twitter.

But
face to face, we don’t use it so freely yet.

OMG
is still largely attributed to a particular group of people: the Valley Girls.

The
Valley Girls are a worthy champion of this phrase, and a completely unique and
interesting species.

Valley
Girls are between thirteen to nineteen years old. They can usually be found off
the coast of California.

They’re
stereotyped as being pretty but quite empty between the ears. And they’re shopaholics,
among many other “Val Gal” things.

This
is not to say that the use of the expression OMG is and will be limited as the
exclusive trademark of the Valley Girls.
Quite the contrary, I am writing this post to say that the English language
is very much alive and thriving. It’s evolving, shedding off some of its
obsolete words and welcoming new ones.

Who knows? Give it another couple of
years and you might hear everybody saying OMG everywhere.